Here is my little dancing princess doing what she loves most! She brings such joy to all of us when she dances. Yesterday she put on a show for the ladies at a local eatery. We were the only customers and she found a spot that resembled a stage. In the background of the video you can hear Ryan getting after Elijah for climbing on everything, pretty regular sound at our house.

Comments fixed

If you have tried to leave a comment in the past and it didn't work, it will now!! Sorry, I guess there was a check I needed to mark. It is now marked and I'm ready for your comments! Bring it!!

Unschooling

Here is Sophie doing her "school" work! One of my favorite tools right now is www.starfall.com. She learns how to read while having fun, she'd play for hours a day if I'd let her.

The other day we had a great unschooling moment. I told Sophie that we would need to be going in 5 minutes. She thought for a while and then asked if I would teach her all about time. That is how unschooling works, you wait for their interest to peak and then you give them what they are asking for!!

Elijah shared his birthday party with another Elijah, they are both three now! We played at an indoor playground and then came back to the other Elijah's house for pizza and more pizza! I love making the cakes, it's my favorite part of birthdays!

I took these on Elijah's birthday. My babies are getting sooo big!

The audition

Sophie went to her audition nervous but very ready to be on stage. When we showed up I was thankful that it was a very small group, maybe only seven kids actually tried out while we were there. Sophia was by far the youngest with the next oldest being seven and the rest middle or high schoolers. Because she can't read yet they asked her to get up on stage and sing happy birthday to one of the directors. She was the very first person to do anything and she had never been put on the spot like that before. When she got on stage she put her hands to her cheeks as if doing the "fat johnny, skinny johnny" joke I grew up with. She was definitely stuck in the "fat johnny" pose as she sang happy birthday. As soon as she was done she ran to me and buried her face in my lap. I thought she was done, I was waiting for the tears to come. But, you know what that kid is tough. She snuggled for a bit and watched the other kids get up on stage and read and then she went up and sang another song. This time Sophie left her hands at her side!! She was adorable. I am so proud of her for going back up! I must also say that by the very end of auditions she was up on the stage dancing and singing all by herself. She loves the stage!!

During auditions they asked me if I would read the part of Kanga. This stage loving mom wasn't going to turn down the opportunity! I read it and had fun, but they were really hoping to have an all child cast. I talked with the directors about doing adult (vs child, not anything naughty) theater and they said they would pass my info on to another director that was doing a play.

Well, a few days later we got the casting info and Sophia is an animal (not one of the main pooh characters, but an extra that has several lines, a really cute part for her) and I am the Narrator, aka Christopher Robins Grandmother. We have already had a couple of practices and it is going well, except for the fact that I am supposed to speak like a Grandma and I am doing terrible at it!

The first showing will be on February 13th, I will let you all know how it goes!!

The Stage

Thanks to a faithful friend that said " you need to put something on your blog, at least some pictures." I am back. I have been very tired with this pregnancy and can't even begin to tell you how much I have just laid in bed. I'm not even reading or anything, maybe my hormones are canceling out my ADD.

I would like to share the funny changes going on at my home. My dear daughter who will be five (I can hardly believe it!!!) in two short months is becoming quite the star. From her first dance recital at two when she ran off the stage saying "mommy, I want to go back up there" I knew she was meant for the stage. As a baby she would get up and stand on anything over a foot tall and then start dancing. Now, you can often find her on her stool in front of the bathroom mirror pretending to be on TV. She keeps saying you can see her at www.sophia.com, I am hoping this is from watching the Disney channel and repeatedly hearing to visit their websites and not something much more scary to a mommy's mind. The funny thing about her new mirror obsession is that I had one at her age as well. My mother loves to tell of catching me practicing crying in front of a full length mirror I had in my room when I was four.

I have decided not to fight the stage loving, attention seeking child, but find her an outlet. So, tomorrow she is off to audition for a children's production of Winnie the Pooh. I figure it's free, she loves being on stage, and she is very good at memorizing her bible verses, so this should be a good fit. I am excited to see how she does. With me she is very outgoing, but it will be a different story when she is in front of strangers and I am excited to see her grow a little!! Yeah, I get to be a crazy stage mom! I need to go and work on my outfit for tomorrow!